July 22, 2011

Former Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio), now a senior counsel with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, this week filed paperwork with Congress to lobby on behalf of a Cleveland-based general contractor.

Stokes, who served in the House from 1968 to 1998, is representing McTech Corp., which is involved with building construction. The former congressman, who served on the House Appropriations Committee, said in an interview he is helping the minority-owned business obtain construction contracts from the departments of Defense and Homeland Security and the General Services Administration.

He said a letter from U.S. Customs and Border Protection lauding McTech Corp.’s work on a training center in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, was one of the reasons he decided to lobby for the company, which has operations in about eight states.

“It made me feel better, in terms of representing the company, that they had these credentials,” Stokes said.

McTech Corp. received millions of dollars in federal government contracts in 2010, according to federal records. Among the awards was a $1.5 million Defense Department contract to renovate and repair a Florida Air National Guard building in Jacksonville.